Rape victim's friend speaks on TV, case filed against Zee

Breaking his silence for the first time since the horrific Dec 16 gang-rape, the victim's friend said he wished he could have saved the 23-year-old woman and blamed police for delaying taking them to hospital for over two hours.

"I wish I could have saved her," the young man, who Delhi Police have said is a 28-year-old software engineer, told Zee News in an exclusive interview.

The channel identified him as Avaindra Pratap Pandey.

Delhi Police has filed a case against Zee News for revealing the identity of the rape victim by carrying the interview of her friend.

"A case under Section 228-A of the Indian Penal Code was filed against Zee News at police station Vasant Vihar," said Delhi Police spokesman Rajan Bhagat

Section 228A (Disclosure of identity of the victim of certain offences etc) lays penalty of a jail term extending to two years for those who "print or publish the name or any matter which may make known the identity" of any rape victim.

Zee TV since Friday night started running a scroll saying the young man agreed to reveal his identity voluntarily. The channel said they will give whatever the man said to the Justice J.S. Verma panel which is looking into strengthening anti-rape laws.

The young man told the channel that no one came forward to help them after they were dumped on the roadside after the more than 40-minute ordeal, stripped, and bloodied.

"We were lying in the cold night for 20 minutes. We had no clothes. Many cars and auto-rickshaws came and passed by us but no one stopped to offer us help... even though I was crying for help," he said.

He also blamed police and hospital authorities.

"Three PCR (Police Control Room vans) came and they left. In the hospital, no one even thought of giving us a quilt," he added.

He told Zee that the three PCR vans arrived at the scene after about 45 minutes, but wasted time in deciding under which police station's jurisdiction the case fell.

He said nobody, including police, gave them clothes or called an ambulance. "They were just watching us," he said, adding that after repeated requests, someone gave him a part of a bed sheet to cover his friend.

"My friend was bleeding profusely. But instead of taking us to a nearby hospital, they (police) took us to a hospital that was far away."

He told the channel that he carried his badly-injured friend to the PCR van on his own as the policemen didn't help them because the girl was bleeding profusely.

"Nobody from the public helped us. People were probably afraid that if they helped us, they would become witnesses to the crime and would be asked to come to police stations and courts," he told the channel.

"Even at the hospital, we were made to wait and I had to literally beg for clothes. I borrowed a stranger's mobile and called my relatives, but just told them that I had met with an accident. My treatment started only after my relatives came," he said.

He also said the rapists tried to "crush" them under the wheels of the bus.

"After throwing us off the bus, they tried to mow us down but I saved my friend by pulling her away in the nick of time. We were without clothes. We tried to stop passers by. Several auto rickshaws, cars and bikes slowed down but no one stopped for about 25 minutes. Then, someone on patrol, stopped and called the police," he told Zee News.

The young woman was tortured and gang-raped by six men in the moving bus on Dec 16. She was stripped, robbed and then thrown off the bus on the roadside alongwith her friend on the cold December night.

She was taken to a Singapore hospital where she died Dec 29. She was quietly cremated on Dec 30. All the six men, including a juvenille, are now in police custody.

Rapes happened in the past , rapes will definately happen in the future and the trend of rapes will further increase..no doubt today's so called modern young men and women are taking some serious steps to adopt modernity rather than stick to our traditional values and ethics. Allah said in Quran in Al-Nisa first for believing men to lower their gaze then for believing women to cover their body while in public, not wear perfum or something that attract stranger men..unfortunately this is not being followed even in Islamic countries. shame on us really..T

Seems the police top personnels knew how their people (police)act on any such incident and that's why wanted to keep the names in secret and threatened the media not to publish the identity else will be filed with a case. As this case has brought to the public in a huge way and which was ofcourse was required to awaken such persons, once came to know the behaviors of such people who are unfortuanately supposed to guard the citizens. We as ordinary citizens will never know how much such cases happens and get closed by self without any action taken to book the culprits. Oh! god please help us..

Why people protesting now,when they need help nobody came forward and now everybody came out with banners and what not.Shame on those people who just keep out of all these and pretend as if nothing happened and become spectators.once the damage is done everybody has the mouth to say something.It is everyone's duty to come fwd and help when help is required not just show up after effect.Very shameful.Delhi police ,hospital authorites and the people of Delhi needs to wake up :(( Thank God I dont belong to this shitty society!!